Chapter 749: Looks Matter

“I want to part ways amicably, but you're unwilling. Then I can only ask you to move out. Two years, I can wait.”

Legally, if a couple lives separately for two years, they can be granted a divorce.

Yan Ji raised his eyelids halfway, the malice and coldness in his character on full display.

Gu Chenye didn't speak, just stared at her silently.

The bathroom was filled with steam and the sound of running water, a truly lulling scene. Yan Ji's brow furrowed, impatiently wanting to shoo him away. But the man suddenly laughed, his gaze fixed on her unnaturally pale face. His voice was playful: "Yan Ji, in just two years, you've forgotten everything?"

Remembering the past, Gu Chenye's face was filled with deep mockery: "Getting along well? Where do you get the face to say these two words? Back then, when you wanted to marry me, you went to great lengths and did everything you could. Why do you think that now that you want to leave, I should accommodate you?"

Yanji saw a spark of excitement in the man's eyes. Since their marriage, Gu Chenye had always ignored her, and even in bed, most of the intimacy was initiated by Yanji. This was the first time he spoke so much.

Yan Ji intentionally provoked him, her wet fingers poking that spot on his chest, teasing and ambiguous: "Are you so unwilling to part with me?"

The man, with a cold face, removed her hand from him: “Anyone who knows me would know how much I hate you.”

The bathroom door slammed shut, and Gu Chenye left. Yan Ji lost his desire to bathe, stared blankly into the air for a while, then hastily finished washing up and went out.

Gu Chenye leaned against the headboard, smoking. The swirling smoke blurred his features. Yan Ji frowned deeply: "Gu Chenye, I told you not to smoke in the room."

The man looked at her, unable to decide whether to laugh or not. Finally, the woman had shed her bewitching, flirtatious facade, revealing the genuine person beneath. It was much more pleasing to the eye.

Gu Chenye slowly exhaled a puff of smoke in front of her: "What qualifications do you have to control me? The house is mine, and all the household expenses are paid by me. Even you are raised by me. Don't say I'm just smoking in the room, even if I burn coal, you can't control it."

"According to the law, all expenses incurred during marriage belong to post-marital property, so you contributed a share of these as well."

"Is Mrs. Gu trying to tell me something?"

Yanji didn't know what he was thinking about, his face became extremely ugly: "Young Master Gu, with one hand covering the sky, how could he fear the law."

This statement was sharp and biting, with condescension and mockery clear to anyone who heard it.

Gu Chenye frowned, very displeased with her yin-yang odd manner. His dark eyes reflected her small figure. The Gu and Yan families were close, he had treated Yan Jiaojiao as his younger sister since childhood, but he was a stranger to Yanji, who had only come to the Yan family at fourteen. One was that they both grew up and there was a difference between men and women, the other was that Yanji's personality was introverted, unlike Yan Jiaojiao who always followed him.

But two years ago, Yanji didn't know what crazy idea she had. She suddenly wanted to marry him and went to great lengths for it, even tearing up with her family.

He never understood why Yan Ji suddenly became so fixated on him.

It wasn't until after he had reacted that Gu Chen Ye realized he had actually asked that question.

Yanji was taken aback for a moment, then immediately donned that layer of alluring makeup again, her voice light and teasing: "Of course it's because you're good-looking. Everyone likes beautiful things, and they will give rise to greed as a result. Isn't that human nature?"

Gu Chenye was so angry by this answer that his temples throbbed: "Now I'm not good-looking? Do you want me to be unable to bear the temptation?"

Even the most beautiful things get tiresome after a while. Besides, only people who are obsessed with love would be attracted to the same person's looks for their whole life.

"So you've set your sights on another man and want to leave me?"

Yanji looked at the smoke in his hand, and the wisps of smoke went into the quilt a little, immediately triggering her few remaining cleanliness issues: "Is that so."

After saying that, she turned and walked out: "You've made the bed stink."

She knew Gu Chen Ye was doing it on purpose. Compared to her, who had always been a tomboy and slept wherever she fell, Master Gu was a proper princess who was picky about everything, from food and clothing to lodging and travel.

She went to the bedroom next door. At nine fifty, Auntie Song came up on time to deliver milk. Seeing that she had changed rooms, she earnestly advised: "Madam, couples always argue at the head of the bed and make up at the foot of the bed. It is most taboo to separate living spaces. Once a rift forms in their relationship, it's gone forever."

There was another thing she didn't say: their relationship had always been strained. If they kept bickering and sleeping in separate beds, neither of them would back down. Divorce was probably only a matter of time.

"Sir, you are handsome and wealthy, many women outside are eyeing you, hoping you'll divorce her. Isn't this giving others a cheap deal?"

Yanji just showed Song Yi the video she had just brushed, a dog was coaxing the crying owner. "Even dogs know women need to be soothed."

Aunt Song: "..."

She turned back, as if searching for something, but only saw an empty corridor. But she had just felt a gaze upon them, could it be that she was too sensitive and misjudged?

"Madam, your husband just seemed to be at the door."

That insult calling Mr. so low, even worse than a dog, was probably heard.

"Hmm."

Seeing no response from her, Aunt Song sighed and went out with the empty cup.

She came to serve them after they were married. Her husband didn't often come back, and even when he did, they would often argue. She always felt that the wife seemed to have a kind of grudging resentment towards her husband. But it was understandable, weren't most quarreling couples wishing they could tear each other apart? She had never seen a couple who fought every day but still hoped the other would live a long life.

After Aunt Song left, Yanji closed the lights and went to sleep with her eyes closed. In the darkness, she touched her right wrist where a watch rested. The band was leather, and it wouldn't budge once fastened tightly.

And beneath the watchband, there was a raised scar.

……

Yanji and her best friend partnered to open a bridal gown design studio. They focused on elegance, but the décor was sparse. In other words, they were operating on a shoestring budget. All their decorations came from thrift stores or materials they bought themselves.

Besides the two owners, there was only a front desk staff in the shop. If it wasn't for the beautiful designs they created, they would have closed down and gone begging on the overpass long ago.

As soon as she stepped into the studio, Yan Jiaojiao rushed over, gritting her teeth and glaring at her with fury: "Yan Ji, did you do this on purpose?"

Her face was marred with several bright red fingerprints, swollen and protruding, clearly the work of a man's heavy hand.

Yan Ji looked at the slap marks on her face, and with a pleased smirk, raised an eyebrow: "Coming to apologize? Then hurry up, I don't have much time to listen to your nonsense."

Yan Jiaojiao gritted her teeth resentfully, glaring at her with a voice that trembled slightly: "Sister, are you so disgusted with me? To slander me, you even fabricate such obscene rumors about me and Brother Chen Ye?"